funds transfers: japan -> US

[gkanai]

Does anyone have any experience with transferring yen from Japan to the US? With the recent collapse of the dollar against the yen, we're seeing almost 107 yen/dollar, which means this is the time to move your money from Japan to the US.

Are there restrictions on when/how much one can move funds without alerting Uncle Sam?

Any guidance would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Taro Toporific]

Are there restrictions on when/how much one can move funds without alerting Uncle Sam?e.

Let's Smurfin'!
The US "says" under $10,000 is cool. In realitity, EVERYTHING over $5,000 is red flagged. Often physically carrying via a nice cruise is the best way to smurf money. ALso using third countries is much easier. OF COURSE, I'm talking gainfully earned money here.

[gkanai]

Taro, is that $5000 per transfer? Per day? Per month?

[Taro Toporific]

Taro, is that $5000 per transfer? Per day? Per month?

Per transfer, no more than 5 large transfers per month NEVER the same bank.

The damn J-Post Office foriegn funds transfer is the least watched.

[gkanai]

So I could move say 500.000 yen via Japan Post as well as my local Japanese bank per month without Uncle Sam knowing? Very cool.

[Taro Toporific]

So I could move say 500.000 yen via Japan Post as well as my local Japanese bank per month without Uncle Sam knowing? Very cool.

Yep. They are total morons about this low tech way of snurfin' funds. AND the J-Post FOREX rate is damn good. :
It's got Taro's Smurfing SEAL of Approval!

[Caustic Saint]

Do you guys ever run into "mystery fees" when you wire money?

I was checking the statements online for my US account and noticed that the amounts going into my account didn't match what I was sending. It wasn't a currency conversion issue, since that's done at my local bank and the funds are wired in US$. Called Bank of America and they looked into it. They told me the amount being put into my account was what they were getting from the US branch of my Korean bank. BofA kindly gave me the number in NYC for that branch and I rang them up.

Seems they were charging fees in the US for the transaction as well as here in Korea. $11 here for fees and commission, $20 to them in the US for processing, then another $10 by BofA to recieve it. WTF?!? $41 in fees?!? Nevermind they didn't even tell my about the $20 "bonus fee" I was paying. If I hadn't called to check it out I would've though BofA was just ripping me off.

What a frickin' scam.

[Ptyx]

Since we re talking bank stuff. Is the J-post a good bank for gaijin apart from the fact that they probably don t speak english. I heard it was the cheapest in terms of fee. I don t wanna pay city bank's account maintenance fee (that you pay if you don t have at least 300 000 yens in your account).

[Taro Toporific]

Since we re talking bank stuff. Is the J-post a good bank for gaijin apart from the fact that they probably don t speak english. I heard it was the cheapest in terms of fee.

Fees are cheap; you withdraw cash from FOREIGN card cards 24/7 there; and hell, their expensive stamps are pretty.